


roses by his gravestone

by s_and_n_write



Series: snippets: a series of oneshots [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Césaire and Nino Lahiffe Ship It, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe-centric, Alya Mourns, Alya is Old, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cemetery, Character Death, Children, Death from Old Age, F/M, Fox Alya Césaire | Rena Rouge, Heavy Angst, Light Angst, Mentions of Ladybug, Mentions of School Days, Mentions of grandkids, Mentions of kids, Minor Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Minor Sabine Cheng/Tom Dupain, Miraculous Ladybug - Freeform, Miraculous Ladybug References, Nino Dies, Nino was Old, Old Age, Please Don't Hate Me, Sad with a Happy Ending, Turtle Nino Lahiffe | Carapace, aged up AU, kind of, mentions of chat noir, old, s and n write, snippets pt. 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26147413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_and_n_write/pseuds/s_and_n_write
Summary: It's been a while since Nino Lahiffe passed, and Alya Lahiffe decides to finally visit his gravestone. She's mourning, and this is the first time she's visited to talk to him so she brought roses. She's a little scared, even if she doesn't know why, but she knows he's watching, so she speaks.And when she's done talking, there's still sadness in her heart, yes, but she at last, she may be ready to start moving on.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sabine Cheng/Tom Dupain
Series: snippets: a series of oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890916
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	roses by his gravestone

**Author's Note:**

> hey it's n!  
> it's either angst or fluff with me, isn't it lol...  
> either way, this one has a sort of happy ending (as you can tell if you read the summary) so don't worry :)  
> enjoy!

_ The pale rays of the morning sun light up the cemetery.  _

All is silent, the wind, the air, the birds. It’s as if the whole place can tell that she’s coming. 

A blue car pulls into the parking lot, where a black metal fence separates the sadness of the gravestones from those who pass by. But this car does not have some mere passerby in it—no this is Alya Lahiffe’s car.

And she’s coming to visit her husband.

She is old (75 and counting), as many can tell from her fading gray hair, and so was Nino Lahiffe when he passed, but she can’t help but feel the weight of being left on this Earth without her partner.

Her best friend.

Her everything.

It's been a while, but the wound is still fresh. Luckily Alya’s best friend, Marinette, is coaching her through it. She went through a similar situation when she lost her parents, and she says she remembers her husband Adrien being there for her. When Nino passed, Marinette decided that Alya needed moral support, so faithful Mari became her rock.

That used to be Nino’s place before.

The cool air outside hits Alya’s face as she nimbly lifts herself out of the car. She tears up when she’s the cemetery, because though she's passed this place many times before, it was never without Nino. 

She had to convince her children to let her go alone—no easy task when her boys were as stubborn as she used to be, but the argument was worth it and she knows this as she walks to the front gate.

She hasn’t come here after the funeral, not once, and she knows that too.

Alya sighs as she opens the gate; the roses in her hand clutched tightly as she eyes Nino’s headstone. She knows that somewhere, somehow Nino will be watching and waiting for her, and only for her. She walks towards his grave using her cane, and stops when she gets close, biting her lip to stop her eyes from watering. 

She’s finally come to visit him, and for the first time, she finally accepts that he’s gone.

Roses were always Nino’s favorite, and she got them fresh this morning so that he could enjoy them. She wants everything to be perfect when she talks to him, because she is not entirely sure of what to say.

She puts the flowers in front of the daisies that her grandkids had brought weeks ago when they visited his grave with their parents; her kids. The daisies are wilted and one day the roses will be too, so Alya vows to change them every week. Or maybe, she can plant rose seeds near Nino’s grave, so that he can enjoy them as they grow. 

She sighs again as she surveys the area. She’s getting ahead of herself. 

She gets down slow so that her knees don’t buckle, and sits, leaning against the headstone as she rests her cane next to her. She thinks about how Nino is lying in a coffin a few feet underneath her.

It’s a weird thought, so she shudders.

Alya knows that she should be talking, so she bites her lip, and tries to speak. The words don’t come effortlessly, and she has to cough a few times to help her throat function, but she knows that she has to talk to him, so she tries.

“Hey,” she whispers. The sound is so hoarse that she barely recognizes her voice, but it’s a start.

She hasn’t spoken a whole lot in a while, to her family, to her friends, to Marinette, to anyone, really. It was a byproduct of Nino’s passing. She gestures, is more observant, but talks less.

“Hey there,” she tries again, after several bouts of coughing. Now she sounds like herself, but the phrase is out of the ordinary for her, so she cringes.

“Hi,” she announces, pausing as she decides on a nickname,“turtle boy,” The nickname makes her smile briefly, but then she glances around and wonders what to talk to. She settles on the space in front of the gravestone, as that’s where she knows he’s buried.

“I was thinking about that day, the day you left,” she recalls, in an attempt to speak to him (the  _ me  _ in the sentence is left out, but she knows it’s there). “I wanted to ask, why did you seem so happy that day? You seemed lighter, like you were on top of the world. I want you to tell me, well, what that was like,” 

She pauses, remembering that he isn’t next to her. “When I meet you again, of course. 

Silence fills the space. 

“Um, the kids…they’re, well, they’re doing ok. They try not to bring you up in front of me, and they try not to cry. But I see the tears, even if they don’t know it!” 

Alya chuckles, and it’s meant to be light, but the laugh comes out bitter instead.

“Can I confess something? When I miss you sometimes, and the pain comes back, I watch your old DJ videos,” Alya confides. “It’s stupid, I know, but I forgot where I put the home movies and everyone already…already thinks I’m weak, so that’s all I have,”

The lump in her throat grows, and makes her eyes water, so the tears begin to flow.

“I miss you  _ so  _ much Nino, boy you don’t even know!” she weeps. “I miss the days that we spent around Paris trying to get footage of Ladybug, and Chat Noir, I miss the late nights we spent in my bedroom ‘studying’, I miss trying to get Adrien and Marinette together, I miss going on double dates with Marinette and Adrien after they got together, I miss how we stood up together with the class to take down two-faced Lila, I miss going to your concerts, I miss running over rooftops with you as Rena Rouge, I miss falling asleep on the couch after a movie night with you, I miss  _ you  _ Nino!”

“A-and I’m trying to move on but it’s so hard! Sometimes I think ‘maybe if I’d gotten you to the hospital on time…” she trails off, knowing that Nino wouldn’t want her to blame herself.

“Stupid nostalgia,” she mutters, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Anyways, what I’m trying to tell you, is that things are not so great. But it’s ok. I’ll be ok,” she promises. The alarm on her phone rings, set up by her oldest to make sure she got back home at the right time. 

She stands up, and brushes the dirt off of her.

“I’ve got to go now,” she finishes. “I promise to come back next week with fresh roses and a tiramisu that  _ you  _ can’t eat and  _ I’m  _ not supposed to eat,” 

She chuckles, knowing that he’s laughing too, and blows a final kiss in the direction of his grave as she walks away.

“See you soon, turtle boy,” she whispers as she walks to the car. 

Alya swings the door open, climbs in, and with a final wave to the cemetery, pulls out of the parking lot.

The wound is closing, and though she may have a scar left behind, Alya Lahiffe is ready to start moving on. 

Somewhere, somehow, Nino Lahiffe rejoices.

**Author's Note:**

> did you like it?  
> leave a comment or a kudos plz! thanks so much!  
> also, follow us on tumblr @s-and-n-writes  
> have a wonderful, wonderful day!


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